Monday, September 17, 2012

Via Paul Krugman, we have David Corn at Mother Jones providing videos, text transcripts and of course Corn's commentary on Rmoney's remarks at what appears to be a secret fundraiser for "a loose affiliation of millionaires and billionaires" (Paul Simon). Paul Krugman expresses some minor doubt that that really is Rmoney speaking (as whoever it is, is off‑camera), but I have watched (heard) all the videos all the way through, and I am persuaded that no actor could imitate Rmoney's speech that well, nor could anyone else write a script with the unconscionable depth of mean‑spiritedness on display in the segments of the speech.

If this is indeed Rmoney, he holds at least half of Americans in raw, unmitigated, unjustifiable contempt. He maligns the poor in almost every way possible; I kept expecting him to say that they... we... don't wash under our arms. Yes, it was that vile.

Rmoney correctly assesses that the election turns on as-yet-undecided independents, many of whom voted for Obama in 2008. But two things are clear: those indy voters are not stupid and are unlikely to be played as a group, and many of those same voters now find themselves in dire economic circumstances more like Rmoney's much-maligned lower-income and zero-income people. Perhaps some of the independents will indeed blame Obama (who, for all his faults in matters of human rights and civil liberties, is by and large not to blame for our nation's economic failures). But many of us can see through the smokescreen, and will at a minimum not vote for Rmoney. (I will in fact vote for Obama, with regret even as I push the button, but I will do it.)

And now that some of us have seen (heard) those videos, I suspect a few soft Rmoney supporters will be driven by outrage to vote for Obama. Maybe I am overestimating the common sense of the American people, or underestimating the effect of the next month and a half of false and vituperative Rmoney campaign ads, or failing to credit the effectiveness of the GOP's voter suppression program. But the revelation of these videos can only have a positive effect from our viewpoint.

We have a nation to save from vile plutocracy. It has nothing to do with whether Obama is your favorite president, or person, or anything else. Rmoney and Ryan are worse human beings than GeeDubya and Cheney ever dreamed of being in their most villainous fantasies. We have a job to do, and these videos, once authenticated, will help us to do it.

UPDATE early Tuesday 9/18: video confirmed by Rmoney at a 10:00pm presser as indeed being him, confirming his point but (paraphrasing his own words) admitting it was not "elegantly" stated. Then he doubled down on the content, once again calling approximately half of Americans lazy bums who don't work and don't pay taxes. What a motherfucking jerk.

8 comments:

I saw P.C.'s article as soon as he published it; I happen to be awake by this time. And "If this is real, it’s very, very ugly" as he says. Just two hours later, this video with hidden camera was published by the French Libération under: "embarrassing video for Romney" and went round the world.

The guys with the hidden camera did a good job, provided there will not be someone to sue them. Over here in Greece, the hidden camera is prohibited.

I translate "le Monde", half an haour later:The hidden face of the campaign of Mitt Romney.Storm Warning on the campaign of Republican candidate: he slips in the polls, his statements on Obama's foreign policy are dangerous, his advisors are divided. And a series of videos shows that for him, half of Americans are "assisted". “Skid” guaranteed..

I translate another article from the same French daily:Mitt Romney tries to seduce the Hispanic electorate.A Gallup poll in June showed that 66% of Hispanic voters would vote for Barack Obama, against 25% for Mitt Romney.

Enfant, thanks; I'll catch up after my doc appointment this morning. As for legality, whether it's legal or not, every sane American politician assumes there's a camera running. Then again, Rmoney is not necessarily sane...

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